Plantation Gives Approval To S.r. 7 Day-care Center

June 1, 2001|By Sean Cavanagh Staff Writer

PLANTATION — How much noise does a 4-year-old make? Residents and elected officials debated that question into the wee hours on Thursday morning before the City Council allowed a day-care center to be opened along State Road 7.

About a dozen homeowners and business officials asked Plantation officials not to allow The Children's Place to open in a converted single-family house on the roadway.

But council members ultimately were unconvinced by claims that shouts and squeals of children at the center, at 940 S. State Road 7, would cause a disturbance.

"They yell, they may laugh, they may giggle, but the volume of noise level they (have) compared to 11- and 12-year-olds is substantially different," said Lynde Voet, one of the day-care center's operators.

The center seeks to open in September, she said.

Some nearby business owners said the day care center also would bring more traffic to surrounding streets and wasn't a good fit.

"This is a nice use in the wrong location," said Lee Schillinger, a lawyer hired to represent the property owners.

The proposal would convert a 1,783-square-foot, single-family home into a day-care center, on the east side of State Road 7.

The proposed site is bordered by a hotel and office, and a vacant plot and the unincorporated Melrose Park neighborhood to the east. It would serve 36 children.

A city report on the proposal concluded that commercial areas such as State Road 7 that are close to residential neighborhoods usually are good locations for day-care centers that provide child care for working people.